Rochester mulling a second high school

By CONOR MAKEM cmakemfosters.com

Wednesday

Dec 31, 2008 at 3:15 AM

ROCHESTER — The Rochester School Board recently approved a study to look into the feasibility of creating a new high school, which would educate between 350 and 450 students, and use no local property tax money or municipal bonds to create.

The proposal, titled Big Step Forward, or Vision, also entails a smaller student body at Spaulding High School of no more than 1,000 students, including the Richard Creteau Regional Technology Center. Up to 150 students then could be attending the Bud Carlson Academy as well, up from about 80 now. The hope is to offer an alternative for students, to improve Spaulding High, and to increase the numbers of students at Bud Carlson.

According to the proposal, brought forth by Spaulding Principal John Shea, "We are not serving all of our students well enough. The drop out rate is too high. The percentage rate of students going on to post-secondary education is too low. Truancy is a significant problem... Fundamentally, Spaulding High School is too large."

School Board member Bob Watson cites studies showing that the optimum high school has between 600 and 1,000 students, big enough to offer a wide variety of programs, but not too big. Spaulding has about 1,700. Shea notes that projections show about 100 fewer high school students in Rochester in four to five years.

"We hope to engage more students overall at the high school level, and see if there are better options out there," explains Superintendent Mike Hopkins. "We didn't want to try to decide ahead of time what we're going to try to do, but we want to see what is out there."

The study is estimated to cost $25,000, much of which will fund the promotion of an assistant principal to a deputy-principal position, about a 10-percent increase in that person's salary. Hopkins notes that the decision has not been made on who will be promoted.

"There are some pretty good examples around the country of folks who are rethinking what high school is," Shea says. "To me it comes down to what Bill Gates said a few years ago, that we're all using a model that's about 100 years old. So much has changed in the last 100 years. I am among those (who thinks) that we need to rethink what defines a high school, and I am certainly not alone."

According to Watson, the board is excited about the possibilities of a new school, which could help in the ongoing efforts to reduce class sizes at Spaulding. He adds that as principal, Shea will remain in charge at Spaulding, working there daily. According to the draft minutes from a special Dec. 9 school board meeting, the new position would allow Shea to focus on the long-range plan, creating contacts for charitable support, and studying high schools that have tried this type of change.

"We will shift in February," Shea says of changes to his schedule. "A typical principal might spend 90 percent of his time on day to day stuff, and maybe 10 percent or more thinking three to five years out. Essentially, I'll be more like half and half."

School board minutes cite Shea as saying the number of students who aren't engaged at the school prompted him to make the proposal, and that a smaller school with a more personal approach can engage those students.

Fellow School Board member Bill Brennan explains that the proposal does not seek a new building, but only raises the questions — is another school possible and can education become more effective?

"We all voted for the study, he says. "But a study is one thing, actually following through is another."

Seven of the 13 members were present at the Dec. 11 meeting, and the proposal passed unanimously.

Though the plan includes startup costs to be funded through outside sources, the proposed school would be part of the Rochester School District and its regular operations would be funded in the same way other city schools are. Drawing several hundred students away from Spaulding however, would allow for some funds to be redirected as well.

Hopkins sees a new high school and the existing one appealing to different types of students.

"I think we have groups of students at the high school, kids in band, on sports teams, kids in chorus, who will want to be in Spaulding. Smaller schools wouldn't have those options," he says. "When you think about some of the schools who have a theme to draw students in, like tech schools, that's what we're looking at."

Theme based charter schools have proved to be popular around the area. Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy in Barrington and the Academy for Equine Sciences in Rochester both offer specialized courses, which proponents say engages some students more than traditional schools.

The new high school, according to the Big Step Forward proposal, would be "a tuition-free public school (charter, pilot, district-run, or another organizational structure) with a focus such as entrepreneurship (both private/business and public/social entrepreneurship) or some other appropriate and powerful unifying theme."

Shea says entrepreneurship is his own bias, because he sees its organizing theme as leading to success in a wide range of fields.

Startup funding is estimated by the proposal to be $5-$10 million for renovating and furnishing an existing local space. That money is slated to be raised via grant, state, and or federal money, not local property taxes or municipal bonds. The proposal sees a new facility opening as soon as 2012 if approved.

Shea admits that his background is a little unique for a high school principal, having spent a lot of time working with nonprofits over the years, fundraising for them. But his background is what enabled him and a former partner to help start a charter school in San Diego, Calif. in 1999. According to Shea, they raised about $8 million for the school called High Tech High, which serves about 600 students. The High Tech High website (www.hightechhigh.org) notes that there are now five High Tech high schools, two middle schools and one elementary school.

In order for the school to become a reality, Shea considers it critically important that the community shares in the vision. He says he wants to put his "neck on the line" along with Mike Hopkins and others to come up with the necessary funding should the new school concept move forward.

Hopkins notes that the school board only approved funding for the study of a new school, and the possibility exists that a new facility won't be economically viable. The proposed school looks to be predicated on outside funding.

Shea is slated to report back to the school board in the spring of 2010 with the findings from the study.

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